Tag Archives: Inspiration

Through The Lens: Rob Machado – Taka’s Treehouse

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This just popped up on my news feed over on our Vimeo page and I wasn’t sure if I was going to spend the next eight minutes watching it but then looking back at what Vimeo normally suggests to me i’ve been pretty blown away with their recommendations. This next video you’re about to watch is again one of them inspirational moments where you watch something and it makes you want to make changes, plan journeys, help people, travel with friends, take adventures into the unknown. Don’t let me tell you that, watch the next eight minutes of this really well thought out, well produced and well filmed video of Rob Machado (pro surfer) go on a journey back to Japan to catch up with old friends and see what’s been going on.

Touching briefly upon his life and travels through surfing Rob goes back to Japan to catch up with one of his old surf friends Takashi Kobayashi who now goes about his days building habitable tree houses. They talk about the huge tsunami that happened just over two years ago and the disaster it brought to the country. Taka wanted to try and help out with what had happened to his community but he felt helpless at the time as he says “as tree house builder there wasn’t much I could do to help at the time..” but then he thought of something which he could give back to the community, something that would help re-build and bring back some happiness that had been stolen from a lot of the people of that area. The next eight minutes will take you on a journey through the lens of Rob Machado and hopefully make you think a little about what we are doing to help maybes in our own communities.

Skateboarder Magazine: Gurus in the Ganges

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I watched this last night before getting an early night because sadly some of us have to work on a Sunday in this job. The thought of working today, last night was the kind that sucked, I felt like my weekend had been stolen from me as i’d put in a good 65 hours this last week which for me is above the norm, I know some of you will be doing that and more and I sympathise.

Anyway onto the main subject here and we’re talking about the video from Skateboarder Magazine entitled “Gurus in the Ganges” which is a road trip video filmed in India during this huge once in a lifetime festival called the Kumbh Mela which happens once every 144 years. Now to learn more about this and why road tripping is a hell of great idea and even more so when you challenge yourself to somewhere out of the US or Europe, you should watch this video. Im not going to spoil it for you but the guys found it challenging at times but thats all part of the fun of going away and picking somewhere which will more than likely be outside of most peoples comfort zones. It’s an experience which you will gain for more from than you could imagine and look at it this way too, the street looks pretty sick in India. So after watching this you may want to start planning a few trips, hell do the big one, make it somewhere amazing and culturally different to where you are, or have been before, challenge yourself and invite some good friends along for the ride. Enjoy..

Orange Bikes: It is what it is

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I think Guy Martin is the boy, he’s a absolute mad man who loves to throw himself down hills and along public roads as fast as possible both on cycles and motor bikes. He’s a straight talking Lincolnshire lad who has a passion for understanding how things work. If you haven’t already seen the documentary Closer to the Edge then run out the door and grab a copy now, you shall not be disappointed in the slightest!

Guy has always been into knowing how things work, like many of us he likes to maintain and tweak his own bikes but doesn’t always know where or how the bikes were made. Guy wanted to find out a little more about where his downhill bike was made so he headed up North to Halifax to drop in on the guys at Orange Bikes to watch the whole process from sheets of aluminium through to complete production happen. If you like watching behind the scenes documentaries or just want to have a gander at some heavy machinery and welding then this video is for you.

Music:
RumHoney – All Over You

PS its the video is over a year old but that doesn’t make it less interesting or relevant.. get it watched with a cuppa tea and a custard cream!!

Red Bull: MacAskill’s Imaginate – Episode 1

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This is episode one of Red Bull’s new series on Danny MacAskill. I’ve not really met Danny before, not properly anyways but from all the sources and from what I see and hear he seems to come across as a nice guy who loves to ride his bike. Something I think a lot of us can relate to regardless of the type of bike we ride. In this episode we see Danny embark on his most ambitious and creative project to date however injuries from the past keep creeping up on him and causing problems. If you’re bothered by blood and operations then towards the end you may want to turn away for a few seconds.. (link goes to Red Bull’s site as embed doesn’t work)

MacAskills-Imaginate

Jason Phelan: A Year In My Life

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By the looks of it Jason has been doing a bit of travelling already, only two months in to 2013 and he’s been half way round the world to Asia. It wasn’t all plane sailing however, during his “best trip of his life” he managed to break his nose, get bit by some potentially rabid monkey and get severe food poisoning landing himself a short stay in hospital. Even though all these things happened it still was one hell of an awesome trip he says and to me this is truly an inspirational video to make you want to go out there and travel. Start saving your pennies peeps.

Music:
Of Monsters And Men – Dirty Paws

Jonny Maxfield: Man Made Mountains

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A collaborative piece between artist Bob Mitchell and rider/film maker Jonny Maxfield. A project set in the stunning industrial landscape of north Wales. Huge photographic images up to 50 ft high displayed as installations in former industrial sites shown with time lapse photography. Once vast, the industry remains in just a few areas but the landscape created is testament to hundreds of years of slate mining.

Cascada

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Nope before you even start thinking of that terrible singer with the blond hair this is not about them. This is a video I was shown by Black Pearl on the message board about a bunch of guys who are in constant search for the best waterfalls and rivers in the world. Team them up with some guys who definitely know what they’re doing behind a lens and you get this epic seven minute video of trekking through the jungle and dropping waterfalls like they’re nothing. Beautiful cinematography and surroundings, wish I could have been there shooting.

Tommy Carroll

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A true inspiration for anyone out there. We take for granted what we’ve got, the opportunities we have and the chances we get and then a lot of the time we complain about all that too. Well it’s time to watch something that will probably make you think a bit about what you do in life. This is Tommy Carroll.

Directed by:
Arthur Neumeier

Music:
Marijn van der Meer – Where The Heart Is

Magnus Walker: Urban Outlaw

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My friend Robin aka Blackpearl from back on the old message boards, just sent me through a link to a video called “Urban Outlaw”. I didn’t quite know what to expect at this point but he just said the words “Interesting bloke” and damn right he was spot on.

It’s a thirty minute documentary about a man called Magnus Walker, originally from Sheffield, who moved to Los Angeles and turned a hobby into an obsession and that obsession into a business. Magnus collects old Porsche 911’s and donated parts and grafts them together in which some Porsche people may turn their noses up at but others have massive respect for what he does. If nothing this video is a huge inspiration to go out there and do something with your life, never give up on what you want to do.

http://www.magnuswalker911.com